Shoshanah Alessi '21

Inquiry: "What Confidence Looks Like"

This year, I chose to examine what confidence looks like, how it can be owned, lost, and cultivated, and how the nuance and complexity of such a trait could be expressed through the visual arts.

After many attempts branching out initially, I ultimately decided to stay true to the medium and process that makes me feel most confident—hyper realistic graphite pencil drawings—but progressively tried to challenge and build on that confidence by working new materials and compositional strategies into my work. I focused on 3 facets of my confidence journey, and dared myself to use increasingly unfamiliar media to reflect and embody my inquiry in a conceptual & physical way.

For my first 3 pieces, I stayed within my comfort zone of pencil & ink, focusing on pure, cultivated, and primal confidence. For my next 2, I focused on family history: confidence as a minority, enigmatic ancestors, and intergenerational trauma and projections, conveying this with reduction and colored pencil. Lastly, I studied my peers, and examined their physical and emotional qualities, exploring this with anatomical focus & collage. My last piece shows my progress, I am bolder, more complex, more content.